1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that includes: a job storage unit for storing a plurality of print jobs; an image forming unit for executing the print jobs stored in the job storage unit; and a job managing unit for managing an execution order of the print jobs carried out by the image forming unit, wherein the job managing unit includes priority job managing portion which, during execution of a specific print job carried out according to the execution order set in advance, manages the image forming unit to suspend the specific print job and preferentially to execute another print job.
2. Description of the Background Art
In an image forming apparatus that is capable of receiving print jobs from a plurality of terminals and storing the print jobs by being connected to a public telephone circuit, a network, etc., the print jobs are normally executed according to a preset execution order, e.g. an order of receiving print jobs. Many of those apparatuses include an interrupt printing function that is capable of preferentially executing the print job which needs to be done urgently by temporarily interrupting the print job in action, when there is an urgent print job.
When using the interrupt printing function, however, there is a following shortcoming. That is, when the image forming apparatus uses a common discharge part for discharging output matters, output matters of the executed print job that is temporarily suspended and output matters of the interrupt printing job are mixed. Thus, a user who has instructed to carry out the interrupt printing job needs to check the mixed output matters to obtain the output matters of the interrupt printing job therefrom.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication H10-149367 therefore proposes an image forming apparatus which includes: image output means that executes a plurality of image jobs according to an output order that is based on a priority order given in advance to the plurality of image jobs to form and output images; priority order changing means that changes the priority order of a first image job that is in the second output order or thereafter to the highest priority order in accordance with a priority order change request; and control means which, when the priority order of the first image job that is changed by the priority order change means is higher than the priority order of a second image job whose output order is the first, changes the output order of the first image job and the output order of the second image job when it is before starting the execution of the second image job, and when the second image job is in action, determines whether or not to suspend the second image job and execute the first image job preferentially, depending on whether or not there is postprocessing to be carried out after forming the images of the first and second image jobs.
The above-described image forming apparatus includes a finisher-type discharge processing part having at least two mount parts which can be cut out depending on whether or not there is the postprocessing such as stapling to be performed. In this apparatus, the consistency in each job in the outputted form is not disturbed even when the priority order is changed for an urgent job. However, there may be cases where the priority output processing is not carried out depending on whether or not the first and second image jobs are subjected to the postprocessing after forming the images. In such cases, the priority order cannot be changed even when there is required an urgent output. Therefore, there is a room for further improvement in this image forming apparatus.